Original topic: it's against the law to sell a lot of things in America in 2015. Like did you know that you can't cook most food on your stove and sell it legally to people? Your kitchen needs to be inspected by the local health department to make sure you're not Typhoid Mary spreading diseases through the population. They need to look for roaches and other pests that might have found their way into the ingredients and the food you prepare. They need to make sure that you're not using whacky ingredients that your mom taught you to use that actually cause horrible health conditions down the road. You can't sell meat that you butcher yourself without a meat-packing license. Similar reasons. When you shoot a deer in the woods legally you can butcher it for your own use but you cannot sell the venison to other people. You can sell produce that you farm in your garden in most states, however there is generally a licensing process that may or may not include inspections of the property before you can go into business. We all know a pie-lady who makes pies and leaves them on the counter on her back porch to be purchased on the honor system. In some states it's legal to do this and in others it's quasi-legal. Milk happens to be one of the commodities that both presents potential health hazards if not preserved properly and can cause health problems occasionally even if properly stored and that has a HUGE industry lobbying group protecting the interests of the big distributors. That it is not legal to sell it without regulation in 2015 isn't a shocker. It wasn't legal to sell it without regulation in 1955 either. Addendum: http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/consumers/ucm079516.htm
^ And yet government approved farms are allowed to pump steroids and antibiotics into livestock, raise the livestock in substandard living conditions (chickens living in filth and darkness, can barely walk on their own power), produce is genetically modified and not required to be identified as such, packaged food is laced with chemicals known to cause birth defects... and we're supposed to accept that because the government says it's approved.
same things would be happening but WAY worse without any government regulation though. In a capitalist system you can't expect sellers to not try to gain an edge. In your above example I'd blame the government for being too lenient and not that they shouldn't have involvement (if that's what your argument is, it might not be). It'll never be perfect though and government will always work slower than capitalists adapt. I suspect 10-20 years from now some of, maybe all of what you are referring to will be outlawed. then we will start arguing about the newest problems, like 3D printing of our food or something.
VW rigging their cars to perform differently (turn on emissions controls) only when they were hooked up to testing gear is a perfect example of why you can *never* trust a company with a detail that involves the bottom line when consumer safety is the issue. Big Government is not good but Big Business is morally corrosive and downright dangerous if left unregulated.
My alternative is not to remove government approval controls, it's to remove the corruption that gives big business the ability to manipulate the government to "gain and edge" to the point that they are harming their consumers and making more money doing it.
In old Mother Russia, you milk the cow but the government takes -- sh-t I forgot the analogy. Sorry Yakof --
It has always seemed so buzzy that so many cows in usa are corn fed. First place I've been to where grass fed is a specification. The milk there also tastes really weird from all the processes it has to go through to be safe. Airplane milk is the best way I can describe it. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Of course....and marijuana is only a gateway drug with no redeeming commercial and or medicinal properties, and we've needed the government to protect people from themselves... And Steroids... yet tobacco and alcohol not so much.
Craft beer (alcohol) is only now running into a regulatory issue. We aren't talking about an animal product people have been consuming for millenia. Surgeon Generals warning...sure...illegality..Ridiculous.
Didn't you recently advocate Carly Florino for POTUS? That play was stolen right from her debate playbook.